The Prime Minister has backed a Liberal senator accused of
smuggling $US20,000 into Iraq, bribing border guards and travelling
with a concealed weapon, ruling out an inquiry into the affair.

Ross Lightfoot was forced late yesterday to amend his pecuniary
interests to the Senate to show that an earlier trip he made to
Iraq was paid for by a Kurdish-Australian academic sponsored by
Woodside Petroleum, an energy firm with prospects in Iraq's
oil-rich north.

Senator Lightfoot also told the Senate he had sold shares he had
bought in three companies but the Herald has been unable to
find any notification to the Senate of the shares' purchase.

The Australian Federal Police dropped moves announced earlier in
the day to investigate claims Senator Lightfoot had taken $US20,000
($25,300) into Iraq on Woodside's behalf, after emphatic denials
from Woodside and the senator.

John Howard, who spoke to Senator Lightfoot briefly yesterday,
later dismissed Opposition calls for an independent inquiry into
the senator's parliamentary study tour to the Kurdish region of
northern Iraq in late January.

Asked by the Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, whether he would
have Senator Lightfoot's statement independently tested, the Prime
Minister said the senator had made a signed denial, and said the
Liberal Party was composed of "honourable men and women".

While the affair is an embarrassment for the Government, any
disciplinary action against Senator Lightfoot would raise the risk
of the renegade senator withdrawing his support from the party,
cancelling the Coalition's majority in the Senate as of July 1.

The Opposition last night formally demanded a Senate privileges
committee investigate Senator Lightfoot's failure to declare that
his trip to Iraq last July was sponsored by Professor Robert Amin
of the Woodside Hydrocarbon Research Facility at Perth's Curtin
University.

Concerning his trip in January, Senator Lightfoot issued a
statement to the Senate after it was reported he had sewn into his
jacket $US20,000, designated as a donation for a hospital in
Halabja in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

At no stage did he receive or carry the cash, he said.

He said he attended a meeting in Iraq where a $US20,000 donation
from the Woodside Hydrocarbon Research Facility was handed to the
Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, Omah Fatah, but
that this was done by Simko Halmet, a representative of Australian
Kurds.

Woodside denied that Senator Lightfoot had travelled to Iraq to
make the donation on behalf of the company. It said it had "no
relationship with Senator Lightfoot".

The company said its donation was made through proper channels,
was in keeping with its practice of donating to community projects
in areas where it operates and that the gift had been properly
acknowledged by Kurdish authorities.

Senator Lightfoot yesterday made conflicting comments about the
.38 pistol he was offered by the Iraqi National Guard detail
assigned to him during the trip. On radio yesterday morning he said
he had carried the weapon tucked into his belt at the centre of his
back.

However, in his statement to the Senate later, Senator Lightfoot
said while he accepted the weapon, "I was uncomfortable with it and
did not subsequently carry it ... I left it secure in one of the
vehicles."

Mr Howard defended Senator Lightfoot, saying he did not think
that in Iraq "it is an unreasonable precaution to provide somebody
with a pistol".

When Mr Beazley asked Mr Howard if he was satisfied that the
senator had done nothing in breach of the Iraqi law against the
carrying of concealed weapons, Mr Howard said he would not give a
legal opinion and the senator had given a "credible response"
against the allegations against him.

Senator Lightfoot had also revealed that he had paid money to
Turkish border officials to expedite his processing, prompting a
question from the Opposition in the Senate about whether he had
"bribed foreign officials".

However, the Special Minister of State, Eric Abetz, said it was
not a matter for him "to comment on or to pontificate about".